


Dark Swan vs. the Love Bug

by coalitiongirl_ficlets (coalitiongirl)



Series: bugcedes [2]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: 5a, BugCedes, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-26
Updated: 2016-04-26
Packaged: 2018-06-04 13:49:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6660754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coalitiongirl/pseuds/coalitiongirl_ficlets
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emma kicks one of Louise’s tires with the point of her <i>very pointy</i> heel and Louise’s headlights go on irritably. “The great Dark Swan, scourge of Storybrooke, can’t even get her <i>stupid</i> car to start.” A nasty-sounding honk.</p><p>Regina feels herself being nudged very subtly forward by a several-ton vehicle. “At least yours hasn’t been kidnapping you to pay visits to that death trap,” she mutters. “I tried to drive Henry to school last week and we spent an hour parked in front of your house instead. I nearly poofed right out of the car.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dark Swan vs. the Love Bug

**Author's Note:**

> this is a sequel to young love (drive my car) that I wrote way back before 5a actually aired, so it's...more AU than a fic about two women and their loving cars might be otherwise. ANYWAY. here!

It’s been days of Dark Swan lurking around town, terrorizing her parents and appearing in Regina’s bedroom at inopportune times– generally when she’s getting dressed, which is _so_ off-limits for Emma since this whole Dark One Ultimate Evil phase. If Emma’s upsetting Henry, Regina is sure as hell going to withhold _happiness_ from her.

And Emma has kind of conceded the point, anyway, because she’s been doing her evil plotting privately instead of bringing it into their lives. So they’re…separated right now, as renewed mortal enemies. Car familiars or not, they need some time apart. Beyond all the bedroom visits, anyway. That are not happening.

So it comes as a surprise when Regina gets into her car later one afternoon and it starts moving before she slides the key in to start it. “Hey!” she snaps at it. “Watch it, Thelma!” (She gets a scolding honk for that. Emma had named their cars Thelma and Louise, and the Bug has been delighted with it but the Merc is more resistant. As is Regina, for that matter. It had just…slipped out. Where has her idiot of a Swan gone, anyway?)

The doors lock and Regina leans back against the seat, waiting for the car to cede control. The Mercedes is as stubborn as she is, and it’s been acting up since Emma’s sacrifice, making odd noises and taking control of the car whenever she drives anywhere near the street where Emma’s Evil Barbie Dreamhouse is. “Okay,” she sighs. “Where to?”

In a surprise to no one, the Merc sideswipes a pair of trash cans and hurtles around the corner, nearly running over a dwarf as it drives down to road to said Evil Barbie Dreamhouse. “Stop sign!” Regina commands. The dashboard flickers off and on mockingly. “If you get us a ticket, I’m loaning you to David for the next month,” Regina threatens. The car slows.

And right down the road, Regina can see a blonde figure dressed all in black sitting on top of the Bug. Of course. The Mercedes pulls over behind them, and Emma stalks over to it as Regina emerges at last. “Hello, Thelma,” she says pleasantly, and then turns a cold eye at Regina. “Come to mock me?”

“Mock you?”

Emma kicks one of Louise’s tires with the point of her _very pointy_ heel and Louise’s headlights go on irritably. “The great Dark Swan, scourge of Storybrooke, can’t even get her _stupid_ car to start.” A nasty-sounding honk.

Regina feels herself being nudged very subtly forward by a several-ton vehicle. “At least yours hasn’t been kidnapping you to pay visits to that death trap,” she mutters. “I tried to drive Henry to school last week and we spent an hour parked in front of your house instead. I nearly poofed right out of the car.”

“Why didn’t you?” Emma asks, her voice suddenly small. Regina doesn’t respond, just digs her fingers into her jacket and stares at the house. Emma glares down at the Merc. “Not that I care. Because I’m evil.” The Merc starts up with a low, threatening roar. “You can live your life, Regina. Don’t worry about me and my useless car. I’ll go back to plotting all your deaths once Louise pops out of this snit.”

Regina reaches out to splay a hand across Louise’s trunk, and the Bug purrs. “Behave,” she orders. “Both of you. No killing.”

“What am I supposed to do, maim someone?” Emma scowls. “I have impulses. _Evil_ impulses.”

Regina rolls her eyes. “I know. I saw you on the bed yesterday when I was changing. You know you still appear in mirrors, right?”

Emma’s beginning to look less dark and more dejected, puppy-sad as she hangs her head and glances up at Regina through her eyelashes. “I just need a ride to town, okay? I left some stuff at the pawn shop. And it’s–“

“Don’t tell me. _Evil stuff_ ,” Regina says mockingly, earning her bursts of honking applause from both cars. Emma thrusts out a lip in stubborn defiance. “Okay, Emma. I’ll give you a ride.”

The Bug starts warningly as though to tell Regina _don’t fuck this up._ Regina is beginning to think that her proficiency at understanding inanimate objects is even more of a headache than Snow’s bird thing.

They make it two blocks in awkward silence before Regina notices that the Bug is tailing them and that the Mercedes is in control. “Must you?” she demands. The Merc hums around them, and then…

The radio turns on, cranking out some old crooning love song. The car is driving into the woods, out to the ravine where they’d once practiced magic, and Emma says, “Really?” in that whining voice that sounds a little bit like Regina’s Emma again.

The sun is beginning to set in front of them, just over the ravine, and the Merc shifts a little so they can have a better view. The seats lean back. The Bug drives up beside them, happily parking right up against Emma’s door.

“You know, we’re two very formidable magic users,” Emma says, her voice restrained again. “We can just…magic ourselves right out of Thelma.”

“We can,” Regina agrees, propping herself up to stare at Emma. “And you can get back to trying to kill people and I can get back to stopping you.”

“Yeah,” Emma says, a little wistful. “I can show up in the shower again tonight. If I don’t kill anyone Henry likes, will you at least–?”

“It was one failed pop quiz. _One_. Henry still likes his algebra teacher,” Regina says swiftly. Emma pouts, her lower lip jutting out a bit too invitingly. “And Henry likes _you_. He doesn’t want you murdering anyone.” As if with a mind of their own, her fingers reach out to trace Emma’s chin. “Neither do I.”

“Whatever,” Emma says sullenly. “You don’t like me like this. Even Louise doesn’t like me anymore.”

“…Louise…loves you,” Regina says carefully. Her hand is on Emma’s shoulder now, creeping down to her waist. “Louise knows you’re fighting a difficult battle right now but she is going to be there for you when you win. Louise knows how hard you’ve been fighting for her, and she’s going to fight just as hard for you.”

Emma’s eyes flicker. “Like…when I sacrificed myself for her?”

“Don’t be silly, that was for the town,” Regina says haughtily, and they both laugh, wet and tired and longing for each other.

“Okay,” Emma whispers. “Okay, so what if…I do whatever I have to do and the Bug fights for me? Until I can fight for myself. Can we do that? Do we have to be angry until then?”

“I don’t think so,” Regina breathes. “I think the Bug is happy to hear it.”

The Bug is blasting _Kiss the Girl_ at full volume, _sha-la-la-la-la-la_ _my-oh-my_ , and Thelma raises her own music in an attempt to drown it out with some class.

Regina cranks down a window. “Shut up, you uncouth little trash heap!” she shouts over the music, and turns back to Emma, tugging her onto her lap and stroking her fingers through her bun until her hair falls in waves over her shoulders and Emma is beaming at her like she’s forgotten the darkness for a moment.

And then she does, indeed, kiss the girl.


End file.
